Women's provisioning work: counting the cost for women living on low income

Collins, Stephanie Baker; Neysmith, Sheila M.; Porter, Elaine; Reitsma-Street, Marge

doi:10.1080/13668800802009422

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The questions and tensions generated by sharing are also central to intangible and tangible practices of care. Care forms the basis of much community work (Collins et al, 2009) and can be neglected in accounts of precarious work (Bauer and Österle, 2013).…”

Section: Why Sharing? Elements and Ethics Of A Feminist Research Methmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Sharing Work: Migrant Community Groups and Informal/Formal Work

Farrugia

2019

Critical Sociology

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Migrant and refugee communities are at the forefront of highly feminised and precarious community sector work. Facing insecure labour contracts and contingent, competitive funding for activities, these communities routinely move between paid and unpaid work. Drawing on multi-sited and participatory ethnographic research and 30 semi-structured interviews with women of different African backgrounds living and working in western Sydney, this article explores the relationship between collective sharing practices and life as precarious workers. The sharing of material resources, information and support takes place beyond designated ‘workplaces’ and on a continuum of activity that moves between the formal and informal, public and private, productive and socially reproductive. This article uses a practice-based approach to foreground the social world of working migrant women. In doing so, it sheds light on the hidden, precarious work of an increasingly marketised community sector and the everyday and emergent ways that marginalised communities respond to precarious work under neoliberalism.

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Section: Why Sharing? Elements and Ethics Of A Feminist Research Methmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Sharing Work: Migrant Community Groups and Informal/Formal Work

Farrugia

2019

Critical Sociology

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“…The findings of this study reveal that welfare‐reliant LM, as single parents are caught by necessity (the needs associated with living in poverty and parenting on their own); and in turn, they rely on the provisioning contributions made by their older children to help the family ‘get by’ and survive. In many ways, relying on their children cannot be avoided as both LM and their older children are drawn into the provisioning relationship by insufficient financial aid and a lack of community supports (Baker‐Collins and others, ; Neysmith and Chen, ). However, by using a wider lens and examining the contributions of older children, a counter‐approach is suggested that emphasises a detailed understanding of the individual, family, community and policy‐level factors that bring children living in poverty into the realms of family caring (Woldehanna and others, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within this broader framework, among the interventions that could have made a difference for John and his family were: welfare rates that covered the costs to live; re‐training opportunities for his mother that would have led to worthwhile employment; stable employment that paid a living wage; the implementation of a living wage; and access to affordable housing, transportation, and childcare. These are examples of macro‐level responses requiring significant policy initiatives and structural changes that in effect, target the poverty (Baker‐Collins and others, ; Caragata, ; Neysmith and Chen, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In these poignant descriptions a powerful narrative is told about how being independent was occurring by necessity and shadowed by concerns about the potential risks to the child, including concerns about community safety and ‘growing up too fast’. Out of the necessity associated with living in poverty, children are drawn into a provisioning relationship (Baker‐Collins and others, ) where every effort counts to help the family ‘get by’.…”

Section: Data Analysis and Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For LM, the significance of children's ‘helping’ is substantial with children providing support when appropriate social and community resources do not suffice or exist (Baker‐Collins and others, ; Neysmith and Chen, ). The risk of narrowly conceiving the support as coping with poverty is that the relationships in which the caring occurs are devalued (Neysmith and others, ); essentially, risking another way LM, and their families, are pathologised.…”

Section: Data Analysis and Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Over 1000 Aluminium Cans for Forty Dollars: The Provisioning Contributions of Older Children from the Perspectives of Welfare‐Reliant Lone Mothers

Liegghio

2014

Children & Society

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In this article, as a child and family mental health therapist, I connect the feminist concept of 'provisioning' and the experiences of 'young carers' to critically examine the family care contributions made by older children living in poverty. I present the findings of a qualitative study consisting of two focus groups in which ten (n = 10) welfare-reliant lone mothers living in Toronto, Canada described the nature and significance of the contributions made by their older children (11-17 years old) to help their families 'make ends meet'. Using grounded theory, two main categories emerged: (1) the nature of the provisioning by older children, and (2) the significance of the contributions. The implications of the findings suggest that mental health approaches with older children living in poverty inappropriately misrepresent and pathologise their emotional distress and family contributions.

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Women's community work challenges market citizenship

Collins

Reitsma-Street

Porter

et al. 2011

Community Development

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This article examines the connection between women's community provisioning work and their participation in citizenship activities that seek to alter an inequitable distribution of rights and resources. As neo-liberal policy regimes restructure the collective work of women, we explore whether women's community work has become a substitute for public resources or whether it serves as a fundamental challenge to an individualization of citizenship by reconnecting citizenship and social rights. We draw on interview and focus group data from a multi-year year investigation of what supports and what limits the provisioning work women perform in six community organizations in Canada serving vulnerable populations and neighborhoods. Three connections between citizenship activities and community provisioning are discussed: how women challenge notions of the worthy citizen; how they bring privatized need back into the public arena; and how they move from solidarity to advocacy.

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Women's provisioning work: counting the cost for women living on low income

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Making Sharing Work: Migrant Community Groups and Informal/Formal Work

Making Sharing Work: Migrant Community Groups and Informal/Formal Work

Over 1000 Aluminium Cans for Forty Dollars: The Provisioning Contributions of Older Children from the Perspectives of Welfare‐Reliant Lone Mothers

Women's community work challenges market citizenship

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